MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Morgantown Utility Board is ready to move forward on the next phase of a highly anticipated water and sewer infrastructure project.
MUB General Manager Mike McNulty announced that the directional drill setup for the Chaplin Hill/Westridge Water and Sewer Infrastructure officially commenced on Thursday with a goal to be completed by the end of the summer. The work will be completed by Monongalia County-based contracting firm Snider and Sons with drills that will go under the Monongahela River to support sewer infrastructure for growing economic developments in the Greater Morgantown area. This is one of four contracts executed as part of the over $10 million project, with a change order approved by the MUB board as part of an emergency meeting last month.
“Contractors with Snider and Sons, they were dropping their drilling machine into the gigantic hole that was part of our special emergency meeting back in July,” said McNulty. “So I think they’re going to start drilling by Thursday, that’s the plan.”
The work for the directional drill portion of the Chaplin/Westridge water and sewer projects will consist of a 16-inch directional drill that will help install approximately 950 feet of 26-inch HDPE waterline under the Monongahela River and 100 feet of 24-inch waterline. Those lines will connect to a booster station around the University Town Center and Westridge development, which will allow for further line extensions into the still-growing parts of the Greater Morgantown area.The drill needed to replace the water line attached to the Westover Bridge is scheduled to work near the CSX railroad line nearby.
“Also, MUB’s crews, we are working night shift right now, they started Sunday evening, they’re working this week, and they’ll be working next week, I believe,” said McNulty. “We’re tying into an existing water line.”
McNulty also added that the lift station portions of the project are also expected to be completed in the coming weeks. As part of work completed by Bear Contracting, the new booster station will allow for the extended water lines to reach into the still-developing parts of the county and will have up-to-date electrical systems as part of the project. Pending any sudden delays in supply chains, the booster station is expected to be complete by the end of August.
“The generator testing has been completed at the booster station, and crews are working on getting electrical parts replaced so we can perform the startup of the booster,” said McNulty. “Our hope is within the next three weeks (that’ll be completed).”
Once the project is completed, the increased water and sewer infrastructure is expected to help support at least two major economic building blocks around the Morgantown and Granville areas. This includes Mylan Park as they continue to bring in visitors to their KOA Campground as well as the continued business locations taking place at the Westridge Business Park, which brings hundreds of cars’ worth of visitors to their over dozen commercial locations daily. With both of those areas expected to continue to grow and MUB contractors expected to work on overnight shifts, McNulty expects little to no disruptions when West Virginia University students arrive for the fall semester.
“I realize that the students are coming back, but this work is being done at night, and I think that’s going to be minimal disruption to traffic flow,” said McNulty.